New to Nursery

[Guest]

Hi everyone

 

I hope you wise bunch might be able to help me. I have just found out I will be teaching nursery next year. I have been in reception for three years and have never taught nursery before! I am very excited about it but would really appreciate any advice! The nursery is part of the school and we provide am, pm and 2 and a half day provision.

 

I have been wondering about: How to structure the day? Which ways have you found best to settle the children and teach them to follow the rules? I am also really interested in objective led planning has anyone tried it? How have you found it?

 

Hopefully over the next term I will spend some time in nursery so will get a better understanding but I would love any advice off you wonderful people!

 

Thank you :-) xxx

[AnonyMouse_5970]

I don't work in a school, so can't be much help. However, I can highly recommend the book The Nursery Year in Action by Anna Ephgrave.

[AnonyMouse_30128]

have a look at Alistair Bryce cleggs you tube video from the TES conference!!!!!

[Guest]

I work in a nursery just like yours and I have just bought the book 'The Nursery Year in Action' for inspiration. We plan using children's interests and themes come from an EYFS overview with Reception and a younger room. I am busy trying to make us a little less adult led (wc, group time and AF) - We follow children's interests and each key worker is responsible for identifying next steps in planning meetings. Some advice I was given was to book end the sessions with any adult time so that there was a longer period in the session for independent play in the continuous provision with good quality adult interactions. We are definitely a work in progress! We were outstanding in our last Ofsted but thinking has changed in the past 3 years. x

[Guest]

I ordered 'Nursery year in Action' and it has arrived today! Cannot wait to get reading!! Ooh I will have a look Finleysmaid. I try to read his blog and have a few of his books. Looking at the early starters in a whole new way now! Thank you for your help! xxx

[Guest]

Hi

 

I think I've finally got my head around the timetable, making sure mornings, afternoons and three and a half day children all get the same provision.

 

The thing I'm really struggling with now is the early starters. We are a 78 place nursery and aren't full in September so we also have a intake of children in January and after Easter. How do other people manage this?? I want to do the best for the children! Ideally I wouldn't want to separate them but can't see how to meet the needs of all the children.

 

I am currently trying to sort out key person groups for September. I have three members of staff including me. I'm not sure whether to share the September starters equally between us and then all have some early starters in our key groups in January or keep one adult free for the January starters. Would be really interested to know what other people do!!

 

I hope my rambling makes sense!

 

Thank you I love this forum, it's full of amazing advice and ideas!

 

Little Miss Giggles xx

[AnonyMouse_7120]

Crumbs do you mean you have 78 chn between 3 of you ? Or you offer 78 places over the week ?

 

We try to give each key person a mix of year groups, we begin by allocating any siblings to previous kp then look at which staff are in on the most sessions the child is.

[Guest]

Sorry! We offer 78 places throughout the week. Yes that's what I was trying to do. We are going to do our group times on our key person groups do you do this? Do you think mixed year groups would work for group time?

 

Sorry so many questions. Thank you for your quick response! X

[AnonyMouse_7120]

Phew was thinking how do you manage 25 odd key children, to be honest we rarely do anything in key groups, we find it never works, it's starts off well planned but as chn increase sessions it all goes to pot, we use an 'in the moment' approach mainly with a little bit of objective led, but any small group activities planned are based on ability rather than key groups.

[AnonyMouse_30128]

we plan for the individual therefore it doesn't matter what sessions they do. All staff have a list of LO's for ALL children and they do the children's learning as they are engaged in play. So if little johnny needs to learn how to count to 5 then I can do that wherever he is. Targeted groups are then easier to manage and usually focus on particular elements. We then add in 1-1 sessions or small group work for SEN/EAL or SAL etc

[Guest]

I would really like to do in the moment planning but my setting is quite old fashioned trying to slowly make changes. I'm reading nursery year in action at the moment. How did you go about implementing it in your setting? Do you do any group times? How have other staff in your setting found it? Thank you for all your help x

[AnonyMouse_30128]

As the boss I have to sell it to the staff but as they are my team and I've chosen them they tend to think the same way ...so selling is not really an issue. You have to be passionate about what you do and then people tend to go with you...if they don't like it then!!!!

I'm not always sure that slowly slowly catchy monkey really works.....sometimes I just do the right we're going to try it this way for a term and see what happens!

 

We have group time at the end of a session (we run am/pm full day and lunch club additional) so in a day we go straight to play (my parents come from a wide area and are often not on time) then free play until half an hour before end then group time (some will have 1-1 work then or this may have been fitted in earlier (dependant on staff numbers!) . Small group work is done by one member of staff during the session ,,,,this may not be literacy /numeracy type activity if we have a focus activity elsewhere then the team member will be there ....I don't have enough people to have more than 1 on small group work.

 

The thing is you have to find a system that works for you working on a 1:13 ratio is bloomin tricky with this age group especially if you have toilet training to do or se needs to hep with...I would go for as much free play as possible it's then much easier to target individual children ...but then I don't work in a school because I can do it the way I like! and I don't have 26 key children per staff member!

[AnonyMouse_3735]

You may be surprised and or overwhelmed with the abilities and attention span that this age group have.. To begin with if you manage a group time of just 5 mins successfully it is a bonus.. most to expect would be 10 mins at any one time slowly increasing depending on the children.

 

This age group need a lot more support for everything, hard enough with the higher ratios many of us not in schools work with - it can take a while to teach the children the rules, routine and all that goes with leaving parents often for the first time.. hence freeplay and often a member of staff doing some small group activity at times during the day.. and a large group time for a short while at some time during the session/day. This age are so very different to reception. Until you know the children and abilities etc it helps to have as much free play as possible.

[Guest]

I was going to start off with free flow for most of the session and then build in some small group activities once I know the children. Yes I think it will be a shock as they will be 2 years younger than the children who have just left my class. I'm trying to prepare for it but think you forget how much help they need to do things when they first start! I think I will have to talk to the Headteacher about giving it a go and see how we get on.

 

Thank you so much for your advice X

[Guest]

Free play with one objective led planning, group time in morning for register and then at end of session singing and story. Sometimes do a music and movement session. That's basically us.

Things to bear in mind are toileting, nappy changes (yes there may be some!), Keeping eye on snack table, free flow inside and out, mopping up spills, sen children needs, settling of new children, accidents and first aid....it's a juggle. With 16 children and 2 staff we have never managed to do key groups ...objective best way to go as both of us know what we are looking for and follow the children. Sometimes don't get all the children in the week but that's the way it goes..have had to stop stressing about it. To be honest my priorities are to concentrate on the three prime areas.

All depends on number of children and number of staff. Another setting I went to visit had enough staff to position them one staff at maths, one at painting, one at play dough table etc